BTA Bank suspends payments on bonds

BTA Bank announced suspension of all repayments on its recovery bonds, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the bank’s press-service. The recovery bonds were issued to the bank's creditors during the first debt restructuring in 2009. The cumulative initial of the bonds exceeds $5 billion. “The bank believes that suspension of such repayments is in the best interests of its creditors and that it will be inappropriate to make the repayments on these bonds, when the bank has not made payments on its senior bonds and is currently negotiating a new restructuring of the debt,” the message states. In December 2011 BTA Bank, mostly owned by Kazakhstan government asset management arm Samruk-Kazyna, announced its intention to run the second restructuring of its debt. The first restructuring was completed last September. As a result the bank’s debt went down from $16.65 billion to $4.2 billion. According to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, loans overdue by over 90 days at Kazakhstan’s 38 banks reached $22.7 billion as of March 1 and make up 31.8 percent of banks' total assets.